Judge says hands were tied in granting murder suspect bond

ATLANTA — Records show a magistrate judge warned the Fulton County district attorney of a decision to grant a murder suspect bond if the state did not indict the man within a certain time period.

Channel 2 Action News began to look into the case further after the district attorney blamed the judge for her role in the suspect's pretrial release.

On Wednesday night, the widow of Soloman Williams came to Channel Action News seeking help.

Louisa Williams told Channel 2's Nefertiti Jaquez that she has discovered the man charged in her husband's August slaying, Dextet Da'ron Hubbard, 19, had been granted bond a month after the killing.

In a statement, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard blasted an “unelected judge” for granting the bond. He suggested the move was illegal, and sympathized with citizens by “wondering when this bond madness will come to an end.”

But a bond order from September shows the same judge warned the state that it needed to indict on or before Sept. 22. Otherwise, the Magistrate Court would grant bond to Hubbard, who has no felony criminal history.

Without the state’s evidence or argument, the judge clearly stated plans to move forward with pretrial release.

Court documents show Hubbard was given a $155,000 bond.

But Williams told Jaquez, you can't put a dollar amount on her husband's life.

“I blame the district attorney for not turning in, and doing that they were supposed to do to indict this boy. I blame the magistrate for just giving him a bond,” Williams said.

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The widow made it clear Thursday night that she feels the justice system is protecting the man who killed her husband instead of her and her children.

“I’m the one suffering the loss and knowing he’s out there,” Williams said.

Williams said if a bond had to be set, it should have been much higher.

"He killed my husband in front of me and my kids. And the judge didn’t take that into consideration? She insulted me and my family by allowing this boy to come back out," Williams said.

Early in the day, Channel 2 Investigative reporter Nicole Carr spoke with Chief Magistrate Judge Cassandra Kirk to learn more about the bond decision.

“The defendant was unindicted,” Kirk told Carr. “He was, in fact, entitled to be indicted so this case could move forward, and that did not occur in this case.”

“And that’s just the law?” Carr asked.

“Right,” Kirk replied.

In another statement Thursday, Howard cited state law giving him 90 days to indict the defendant.

But the case landed in a what's called a non-complex case management system. The Fulton County Court System agreed to the order in 2007. It's designed to expedite the cases of nonviolent offenders, giving the Magistrate Court just nine weeks from arrest to dispose of the case.
Hubbard's case landed there because of his status in jail.

“So this case is obviously not a non-complex case,” Kirk said. “But the cases that also come through this (system) by the order are those cases where the defendants are sitting in jail and they have not been indicted.”

Howard has not responded to follow-up questions on this process or how the case remained assigned to the Magistrate Court non-complex case management system.

In an earlier statement, Howard said he planned to take Hubbard’s case to a grand jury Friday.

Cox Media Group